Strategic Operations Management Essentials

PART A: Reflective Analysis

Introduction

Operations Management is an elemental process within the framework of an organization that is concerned with the administration of all the processes that are analogous to the manufacturing, designing, auditing, regulating, and enhancement of the products and services offered by the organization (Benjaafar and Hu, 2020). On the contrary, strategic operations management is concerned with the targeted administration of all the operations in order to boost the quality of the services and products. In other words, it has been crucial aspect of every organization belonging to any domain be it on the online platform or on the offline platform. In order to manage business decisions efficiently, organizations need to adopt strategic decisions in different key areas of the organization in order to achieve the organizational goals and accomplish success for the organization. The main focus of strategic operations management for any organization is to enhance performance by improved efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility of the key processes involved in the organization (Demir, 2019). Strategic operations management deals in the core areas like supply chain management, quality management, design of products and services, and many more prime areas within the framework of the organization.

Discussion

Importance of Personal Skills for Operations Manager

Strategic Operations Management in an organization is not an easy task as it seems as it requires constant monitoring of every activity associated with the organization, identifying the main issues in any process or activity that can hinder the smooth operation of the organization and lot of planning in order to devise effective plans and strategies in order to deal with the core areas of operations within the organizational framework (Arslan et al., 2020). All this is possible only under the leadership of a competent operations manager who knows the roles and responsibilities in detail. The operation manager should not only look after the operations of the organization but should also look forward to creating value for its customers and stakeholders. The skills that every operations manager should possess are effective communication skills, interpersonal skills, analytical and decision-solving skills, and most importantly leadership skills. These skills not only help to build a competent operations manager but also an able leader who can lead an organization from the front (Pekkanen et al., 2020). Strategic operations management is a distant dream for an organization with an operations manager without these skills and clear focus and farsightedness.

Identification of One Personal Skill

One personal skill that I have identified in me that requires improvement with relevance to the field of operations and with respect to a wider organizational environment is leadership skills. I personally think that this one personal skill requires more attention and needs more development in order to make me an able leader in the operational field. The improvement in my leadership skills will help me to coordinate the different processes pertaining to the operations successfully and will also help me to motivate the employees of the organization along with my colleagues to achieve their personal goals as well as the goals of the organization (Saffar and Obeidat, 2020). The leadership skill in me needs to be improved in order to voice out my opinions and decisions relevant to the critical tasks associated with the operations of an organization. Improved leadership skills in me will help me to closely monitor all the important activities in a wider organizational environment and analyze where intervention is required in order to make the operations continue seamlessly.

Improvement of Personal Skill and its Effectiveness

In order to improve one need to learn from experiences as in many cases, I think experience is the best teacher which helps you to learn from your mistakes. This fact has been highlighted to a great extent by the Gibbs' Reflective Cycle as laid down with Prof. Graham Gibbs which involves five stages of self-reflection of a problem in an individual, by analyzing it in detail and then identifying ways to solve it. Now following Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle I have found my shortcomings in the operational field and I have realized that the leadership skills in me need to be improved which will help me to become a competent leader in the future (Matsuo and Nagata, 2020). I have analyzed using this cycle that these skills are very much essential for strategic operations management in an organization. I have identified that in order to improve my leadership skills I need to do a lot of research on the different forms of leadership styles and need to learn about them more in detail from various resources. I have decided to attend more workshops and training programs on leadership which will help me to gain detailed insight into the effective leadership qualities that are essential in a wider organizational environment. One of the effective ways that I have identified to enhance my leadership skills is to train under a mentor who has all the leadership qualities and will help me to become a true leader in the field of operations in order to achieve success not only for me but also for my organization (Seidel et al., 2019). The effectiveness of improving my leadership skills has been quite significant in guiding others towards their objectives by helping them to identify their strengths and weaknesses in them. More importantly, enhancing my leadership skills helped me to motivate others and help them to stay optimistic about the outcomes. I think these helped them to enhance their performance capability as they were able to identify their true abilities, and there lies the effectiveness of enhancing my leadership skills. Enhancing my leadership skills also helped me to build a coordinated working atmosphere within a wider organizational environment.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Enhanced Personal Skill

I have been able to identify my personal skill that is the leadership skill which required improvement in the field of operations in order to benefit a wider organizational environment. I analyzed how important it is to make crucial strategic decisions in terms of operations management in an organization and help the organization in order to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors in the market. I also adopted several steps in order to enhance my leadership skills which would help me to become a competent leader in the field of operations and help me to make crucial decisions at the right time in order to maintain the seamless operations of an organization (Podsakoff and Podsakoff, 2019). I think the enhanced leadership skills also helped me to instill a sense of confidence which I lacked before and made me hesitant to take the right decisions at the right time. As a result of which on most occasions many operations related to the organization got unnecessarily delayed. The strengths in my enhanced leadership skills are of course my increased capability to motivate others in the right direction to achieve the organizational goals and also guide the workforce of the organization in order to make the right decisions for the benefit of the wider organizational environment. The enhanced leadership skills have strengthened my ability to make crucial decisions pertaining to the operations of the organization and also strengthen my monitoring capability to look after the key activities related to operations management. The enhanced leadership skills also reinforced me to build a coordinated working environment for all in order to work collectively to achieve the organizational goals. Even after enhancing my leadership skills, I found that there are some weaknesses in me like I am not so efficient in problem-solving which is quite important to handling crucial tasks in the field of operations. In many cases, I am left clueless when it comes to solving problems related to operations management in the organization. Another weakness in me which I found even after enhancing my leadership skills is my inability to correctly identify the strengths and weaknesses in members of my team with whom I wish to work in order to enforce strategic operations management in the organization. So in most cases, I am left wondering to whom I can assign a particular task in order to accomplish it successfully.

Conclusion

Therefore, according to the overview, it can be concluded that how important is operations management for an organization in order to achieve its organizational goals and in order to accomplish a competitive advantage over its competitors. It is also seen how strategic operations management is different from operations management in dealing with the quality of the products and services which the organization offers to its consumers. The importance of key personal skills of an operations manager is also discussed and it is also analyzed in detail how these personal skills are significant in order to have successful strategic operations management in an organization.

PART B: REPORT

a. Titled Introduction

Quality assurance and inventory management has been considered to be effective process of operations that an organization takes into account. In other words, managing operations in industrial sector is a challenging responsibility as well as managing all kinds of risks and associated responsibilities linked with the quality and inventory process as well. This can be implemented in any challenging sectors for having a quality outcome as well. This part of the report has been based on looking forward to the strategic ways of keeping all technical approaches that has been applicable in addressing challenges faced in terms of quality, planning and controlling strategies. Further, it also emphasizes on theoretical frameworks suitable for managing overall quality of management process and techniques

Nature of Operation Management

Nature of operations management is an effective means and strategic way of keeping all records of production as well as including the methods of manufacturing processes as well (Khan et al 2020). Operation management requires familiarity with a lot of disciples in the business, like the management of issues, maintaining the equipment in the factory required for production. The operation manager should know how to control the cost with ample production and most importantly should be able to maintain a good relationship with the labourers in the organization. Nowadays, operation management is considered to be a multidisciplinary area If function in an organization including finance and marketing. The operational management has to make sure that all the necessary inputs, like material or labour, are used in the most productive way to provide profitable output in the organization. The Nature of operation management can be defined as a system dynamic which needs to change according to the market demands and trends (Glende et al 2017). As the operation manager is concerned with the processes that change raw materials into final products, it can be considered, as a transformational process. The management is continuous in the process, as it involves in the management of the activities of the employees as long as they are in the process. Operation management has to supervise and regulate all the concerned processes ongoing on the organisation and ensure that there is no abuse of any resources.

A general theoretical discussion on the challenges that Operational Management face

The operation management in an organization has to face many challenges in its procedure. These are the major challenges faced by operation management around the globe

Globalization

Globalization is defined as a way of interaction of the organization from different countries (Milovanović et al. 2017). This has led the operation management to face competition not only in local but also across the world. As said by, to compete in the global market the organizations need to improve their products and reduce their prices.

Sustainability

According to Das et al. (2017), the businesses should manage their production in such a way that the resources should be maintained for future use. Considering the three pillars of sustainability, social, economy and environment the operation management has to regulate the outcomes of their processes and its impacts. The operation management needs to take up practices that will be in accordance with the three pillars of sustainability.

Ethical conduct

As per Dozio et al. (2018), Ethics in business can be defined as to ensure that the production process of the products does not harm the consumer or society. Unethical behaviour has led to the demise of any organizations from the market. The code of ethics has to be maintained throughout the business process from accounting to production as unethical behaviour will earn a bad reputation for the organization.

Effective communication

Effective and consistent communication is a challenging task and the operation management should be able to establish effective communication with the internal and external members of the organization like the employed and the stakeholders (Atouba and Shumate 2019). It is also necessary to have efficient communication with the employees so that they can trust the operation management.

System design

According to Park et al. (2017), the system design is related to the operational management for designing a system that is capable of producing quality goods and in high quantities as per the demand. Planning, Designing and managing the system is a challenge for operation management.

Different Techniques can be used to address the issues in Operation Management

The issues faced by the operation management needs to be addressed and can be done by implementing different programs.

Based on this effective framework, it has been considered to be a holistic approach of an overall team member of an organisation to carry out successful integration of operational process in a business.

Employee Commitment

Commitment levels from employees can be possible through effective binding of policies as well as (Konrad et al. 2017). The technology will help the operation management in supervising the process in all respects. For example, drone technology can be used to keep focusing on key area of check on motivational aspects as well as team building and relationship capacity in dealing with overall operations.

Quality Improvement Culture:

As influenced by Guha and Kumar (2018), a quality improvement culture has been considered to be effective in terms of making sure about only identifying key problem within an organisation that may not be repeated as well as resolved within limited time. It also stands for employee feedback generation process so that it ensures about employee comfort levels at work place environment as well.

Continuous Improvement process

The primary aim of operation management is to increase the efficiency levels of the organisations of any sectors, as focus on continuous improvement would involve all levels of development and growth prospects (Andervazh et al. 2020). It needs to include policies and procedures as well as controls that have to be effective in terms of the management. Thus, it enhances the survival procedure for a very long-term prospect.

Employee Co operations

Rule and regulations must be dealt with proper care to avoid any further compromising situations. In other words, employee cooperation is a necessary platform through which the overall quality can be enhanced in a better way (Ichinose et al., 2018). For example, it gets to be more like warfare to deal with such situations. It is better to hire an expertise consultant who would keep the proceedings in check regularly.

Customer Requirements

Customer requirements can be strengthened with cross-functional team interaction for the purpose of managing the operation efficiently (Lotfi et al. 2020). It is required to be working in cooperated environment along with other functional team members. For the purpose of making assurance of getting complete work on logistics is one example (Bolatan et al. 2016). In this respect, the logistics needs to have coordinate relationship with the suppliers and the Supply chain team.

Effective Control to be laid down

A right working environment can be achieved only by appointing the correct efficient workers. The employees need to be controlled under ethical guidelines as well as code of conduct that assures functions and the activities of the production for without any destruction or damage to the customers and the social phenomenon (Parisio et al. 2016). This can be achieved only by putting the right people at the right place of work.

SERVQUAL

This particular measurement tool is meant for measuring the service quality control and monitoring the process of systematic flow of activity in the entire process of operations that carry out quality in all aspects (Prentkovskis et al. 2018). In other words, it can be provided with an exemplary model that the way of managing and measuring the service quality of a sector below:

The above model shows that a hierarchical process of measuring service quality in a health care sector that can be effective in terms of managing organisations’ operations (Ko and Chou, 2020). However, it may vary, as per tools and software used in other sectors. In case of this sector, it shows that services gets better controlled and managed with quality under a flow of hierarchies above. It starts with interaction and then goes forward with technical quality and environmental check and finding administration and altogether looks into a common goal of service quality along with customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

b. An Advert for an Operation Manager’s Role

Based on the Advert provided below in the Appendix, it shows that an operation manager’s role is required to appear with managing directions, which are adopted in order to make changes and transformations in the incoming materials and the goods and their services.

The operation manager is the main controller of the team.

The role of an operation manager is to scrutinize and develop working rates and regulations.

Based on this job advert, it tells about the duties, as the head of the management team, inventing or altering any policies or strategically matters and its implementations, helping at the human resource hiring process, checking the budgets, plans, and reports regarding the audit, working with the stakeholders, assuring all the legal rules and regulations, helping at reaching the goal of the entire organization, handling the faults of the team, making partnerships with other organizations and supporting the working community. In addition, it is required to have qualification of Graduation in any disciplined subject area to be eligible for the post as well.

Discussion of the operational challenges that the successful candidate would face

Overhead Management

Overhead management is mainly controlled by the limits of the businesses and trade factors, improvement in technological terms, and the transportation systems. In this field, the operation management candidate is bound to face some issues. There is always a competition running on the environment, making the situation worse. The industries that are working globally must develop their performance level in case of services. The decrease in prices must not affect the quality of the commodities (Parisio et al., 2016). This responsibility remains on the operation manager. The operation manager must control whether and by how much the prices should be increased or decreased to meet the quality demand of the commodity or the services produced. Often the operation manager fails at this point, leading it to be one of the most important issues of the operation management.

Competitive Society

In order to sustain, the companies must develop the capability to remain constant at severe changes in the surroundings. In terms of operation management, it refers to the phenomenon of creating evaluations or adaptation of new policies to maintain itself without risking any future resources (Radosavljević et al. 2016). The social, environmental, and economic conditions are the main structures above which the management system stands erectly. This phase is so important as one of the issues of the operation management because the operation managers need to be very cautious and remain concerned with the results of each of such structures individually. It includes their safety, communities, economic welfares, etc. The whole matter must be controlled by the operation manager alone to check any further issues.

Identify and explain how you would address the main issues

The issues are many when it comes to the field of operations and such issues need to be identified before it creates a blockage in the path of operations of an organization. Every issue needs a modern and unique solution in order to resolve them effectively. One of the issues that have been identified is the overhead expenses associated with the operations. Generally, overhead expenses are not linked to the production costs of goods or services or with designated sales (Argade, 2020). It generally comes into the picture during supporting the costs of production or with activities related to sales of products or services. This unaccounted expense has always been a burden for the operations manager in an organization and in order to implement strategic operations management within the framework of the organization. So it is quite important for an organization to proactively manage the overhead expenses. One of the approaches, in order to address this issue, is to quantitatively evaluate the value drivers involved in the various functional areas of operations within the organization, in order to regulate the individual operations and make it more effective through process enhancements. Another approach to address the issue of overhead expenses is to benchmarking the different individual operations and make specific adjustments in the cost structures and processes across a broader scale in order to bring down the overall expenses associated with the different operations (Wiser et al. 2020). Benchmarking eventually helps the operations managers in order to get a clear view where the necessary cuts are required in operational costs in order to keep control of the overhead expenses.

Another issue that has been identified with respect to the field of operations is the sustenance of an organization in a competitive market (Carvalho, Sampaio and Rebentisch, 2019). This issue has always been a matter of concern for most operational managers in order to maintain a smooth flow of the individual operations in an organization. The competitive market always puts pressure on the demand and supply chain of an organization which indirectly has an impact on the production and quality of the goods and services. This issue can be addressed efficiently by proper knowledge management of the operation managers with respect to advanced quality control and innovative operational measures. This not only helps the organization to gain a competitive advantage in the competitive market but also creates a value for the goods and services offered to its customers and stakeholders (Chen, 2019). Another approach to address this issue is to make the operations focus on making high-quality products and services at the minimum costs of manufacturing without affecting the environment, in short enhancing the significance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the organization. This in turn will help the operation managers to be more responsible ethically as individuals and more conscious towards being more competent with the responsibilities and duties (Bian et al. 2020). In this way, they will be able to uplift the efficiency of the different operations which is essential to sustaining the competitive market and achieve the organizational goals in order to accomplish the competitive advantage over the competitors.

Recommending ways that is applicable for addressing main issues

Just In Time (JIT) is an approach that is involved in reducing inventory as many organizations consider excess inventories as wastes. JIT is based on the philosophy that goods and services should be produced only when needed and based on what is needed. This approach forms an important part of the operational process as it forms a key role in inventory control (Bond et al. 2020). Now, this approach is important in operations management in any industry as it helps in cost-effective production and delivery of products and services that are required in the right quantity and at the right time while maintaining the quality and standards, thereby it helps to reduce considerable pressure on the resources and facilities available to an organization. The basic principle behind lean operations is quite unequivocal in order to perceive as it is mainly concerned with the elimination of wastes in order to promote operations that are swifter and stauncher to manufacture high-grade products and services at relatively low operational costs (Abdallah et al. 2019). The concept of lean operation involves the approach of JIT along with adding values in order to promote operations that work towards creating values for its customers and stakeholders by addressing the main issues identified in relation to the field of operations. JIT along with lean helps in the continuous improvement of operational activities by removing all the unnecessary steps that form a part of the operational activities.

Quality Planning

The quality planning forms an integral part of operations in any organization in order to deliver error-free products and services to its customers. The effectiveness of quality planning in the field of operations lies in the approach towards delivering quality products and services to the consumers that fit their purpose. Quality planning in terms of operational activities also reduces the burden on the production and the resources of the organization (Bouranta et al. 2019). An ideal quality planning in terms of operations should look forward to matching the expectations of the customers about a product or service with their perception about the same product or service, in this way the organization will be able to create value for their products and services in the market. In turn, this will help the organization to address the main issues it is facing and enhance its operational activities for delivering quality and reliable products and services.

Control Agile Strategies

Agile strategies generally focus on the rapid adoption of cost-effective measures which helps to cut down the operational costs in an organization. This is in turn helps to provide a competitive advantage to the organization and helps to resolve one of the identified issues with the organization. Agile strategies aid in maximizing the efficiency of the operational activities by responding to the necessary changes that need to be implemented within the operational activities (Nabass and Abdallah, 2019). Controlled agile strategies will help the organization to focus on the key areas of inventory and supply chain management that are very much essential in delivering quality products and services to the consumers. Controlled agile strategies look forward to incorporation evolving technology and architecture in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the operational capabilities of an organization. Agile strategies aid in the rapid integration of standardized ways of operation with robust practices that help the organization to sense and seize opportunities in the competitive market.

Conclusion

From the overall analysis, it has been found that how operations management is important for an organization in order to streamline the different operations associated with an organization. Operations management with the appropriate strategies helps an organization to facilitate to look after the key areas related to operational activities that generally help an organization in order to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors in a competitive market. It is also seen that how effective and adequate operations are related to ensuring quality assurance and inventory management within an organization. The issues towards operational management have been identified and addressed using proper justification. The significance of lean and agile strategies in operational activities towards the management of inventory and reducing the wastes generated in an organization is also looked into with great details. The importance of quality planning in operational activities towards delivering quality products and services to its customers is also discussed in order to create values for the organization.

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